Peter R. Bickford

Catching up with some of the latest auction news from Heritage Auction Gallery... Vampirella (Magazine) #1 The magazine-sized debut of the sultry vampiress from Drakulon was largely unremarked upon when it first appeared back in 1969, seemingly being just another adult-themed horror character from Warren, albeit one whose debut featured a cover painting from the great Frank Frazetta. Vampirella proved a long-lasting character, however, and--despite decades of garnering only relatively mild collector interest--caught fire in the 1990s with the reimagining by Harris Comics. Since then, she's become a regular star of several publisher's efforts, and her first appearance back in the magazine continues to shoot to new heights, with recent auction sales pushing the $0.50 magazine to over twice its previous value, at $1500. Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #130 Carl Barks is traditionally known as "The "Good Duck Artist" -- beautifully rendering Donald, Scrooge, and the rest of the Disney duck gang in a luminous style which has long been prized by collectors. Recent auction results continue to confirm his popularity, pushing "Barks Duck" issues #94, 95, and #130 to new heights -- tripling the former guides for the first two comics, and pushing the July, 1951 issue #130 from $140 to $225. Our Fighting Forces #46 DC's 1950s and 1960s war comics were overall very solid from both a storytelling and artistic point of view, featuring the talents of stalwarts like Russ Heath, Irv Novick, Ross Andru, and Bill Finger, and the great Joe Kubert. Our Fighting Forces, however, typically got less attention than titles like Star Spangled War Stories, lacking a breakaway star like Sgt. Rock (at least until the late-series introduction of The Losers). From an auction standpoint, OFF seems to be finding its audience at last, with strong showings along many of the earlier issues essentially tripling last year's prices. Noted in particular here is issue #46, which jumped from $95 to $275. Shazam! #1 C.C. Beck's super-hero fave "Shazam!" was originally known as Captain Marvel, but was forced to change names when Marvel Comics gained rights to the trademark after one of the more celebrated sets of legal struggles in comic history. Reborn as Shazam! (both a battle cry and the initials of the seven legendary characters whose power he was invoking to transform from kid Billy Batson into the mighty Captain... err... Shazam! guy). Although the character has its fans, it largely underperformed in recent auctions, with even high grade slabbed copies selling for essentially the same price as unslabbed NM copies (when typically you'd expect a significant "CGC Premium"). The guide price fell slightly to $106, largely supported by similar unslabbed sales, sold through traditional, non-auction channels.

While many comic collectors focus on super-heroes, the real story in recent Heritage Auctions was the astonishing sales pegged by high grade Golden Age books featuring mystery, war, and even teen comedy. Across the board, Golden age continued to push higher, indicating that despite the current economic uncertainty (or perhaps because of it), collectors continue to seek out investments in high quality collectibles. Notable Results: Ellery Queen (Ziff-Davis) #2 Although featuring terrific pulp-style cover art, this otherwise unremarkable entry in the comic adaptation of the popular mystery series surprised by bringing in $1320 for a CGC 9.0 copy. Though seldom seen at auction, previous sales had the price pegged at no more than a few hundred dollars. War Fury #1 This Korean-era war comic from the little-known Comics Media company, War Fury #1 featured forgettable writing by Charles Houts, workmanike art from Don Heck and Don Perlin, and very little else to raise it from the $10 "oldies" box at your local comic store...until now. Formerly charting at a mere $130 in NM, a CGC 6.5 copy of War Fury #1 just garnered an amazing $2,280 at auction. Gangsters Can't Win #2 Another formerly overlooked Golden Age title that will be overlooked no more. Gangsters can't Win lacked the cult status of later entries in the crime genre like E.C.'s Crime Suspenstories, but it's clearly being rediscovered by Golden Age collectors. Recently valued as little as $90 in NM, A CGC 7.5 copy just pulled in a whopping $1860 at auction, pulling the whole title up dramatically along with it.